


Demons in the Dark

by Moonsault, orphan_account



Category: World Wrestling Entertainment
Genre: Emotional Hurt/Comfort, First Kiss, Friendship/Love, Kayfabe Compliant, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-19
Updated: 2017-08-19
Packaged: 2018-12-17 03:13:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,118
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11842785
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Moonsault/pseuds/Moonsault, https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: After SummerSlam and the return of the Demon, Kevin finds Finn Balor in a dark locker room alone.





	Demons in the Dark

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Lanternhill](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lanternhill/gifts).



> Written, of course, with no idea what's actually going to happen at SummerSlam! But it seems likely Finn and the Demon will be a theme...

“What do you mean? My bag’s in there!”

Kevin Owens glared at the roadie standing outside the locker room. The kid was shivering, and Kevin was pleased he was having that effect, until he abruptly realized the kid wasn’t scared of _him_ at all. Less satisfying.

“I’m sorry, sir,” said the kid. “But I’m not sure you should go in. Balor’s still in there.”

“Finn? Well, tell him I need my bag--”

“Not Finn.” The kid had gone even more pale. “Balor.”

Kevin opened his mouth to snap something like _Don’t be ridiculous, it’s just some face paint,_ but something in the roadie’s eyes stopped him. He remembered, almost against his will, what it had felt like to face down the Demon in Tokyo and in Brooklyn. The look in those pale eyes, so utterly unlike the laughter that usually lurked in Finn’s, even when he was cutting a promo about how much you sucked.

“It’s okay,” he said, trying to sound sympathetic. “I’ll just go in and get my bag.”

The kid swallowed hard, then nodded and stood aside. Kevin put his hand on the door handle. As he did he felt a sudden urge to hesitate, but he forced it aside rather than look weak, and threw the door open to step inside.

It was dark. Kevin fumbled for the light switch and smacked at it, but the lights didn’t come on. The door closed behind him. He felt a sudden urge to bolt backwards and wrench the door open, but he resisted it, imagining the kid’s smug face: _I told you so._

Kevin stood in the dark and listened to someone breathing hoarsely on the other side of the room. It wasn’t quite sobbing, it wasn’t quite growling. It was a little of both. After a pause, he swallowed and pulled his phone out of his shorts. The tiny oblong of bluish light seemed almost blinding in the darkness. “Finn?” he said, pleased that his voice didn’t shake.

There was a stirring in the corner, and Kevin made his way in that direction. He barked his shins on a bench and swore under his breath, but kept going until the pale light fell on a form crouched against the wall.

Kevin looked down at Finn, seeing the tendrils of the headdress shift and shiver with Finn’s breathing. He shouldn’t be wearing that headdress now that the match was done, Kevin thought. Why had he put it back on? “Finn,” Kevin said again, and the man below him lifted his face and looked up at him.

His white paint was streaked and smudged around wild, staring eyes. _An animal’s eyes,_ Kevin thought, and at the thought all the fear he’d been resisting left him abruptly. He squatted in front of Finn and took his chin in his hand, feeling the grease of the paint and the bristles beneath it. “It’s hard,” he said. “I know.”

Finn took a sharp breath as if he were going to laugh, then stopped, looking at Kevin’s face. Kevin met his eyes, remembering how he’d felt after certain matches in his career. The pain of coming back to this world from a world where everything felt… clearer. Inhuman. Almost divine. 

After a moment, Finn nodded slowly. His eyes weren’t quite _there_ yet, but they weren’t as lost as they had been. “You… you do know,” he said, and his voice was hoarse as though he’d been screaming with pain or ecstasy. Kevin remembered that feeling too.

They all had their demons.

“Tell you what,” he said, meeting Finn’s eyes steadily. “How about we go to the zoo tomorrow? There’s a great little one near here, it’s not usually very crowded. We can look at the animals together.” _Smell the dusty hair and hear the snuffles and snorts, maybe touch a goat’s coarse hair and look into its odd mad eyes and know that you are a human being and mortal and here in this world._

Finn frowned slightly, as if puzzled, and Kevin pulled out his wild card: “They’ve got _giraffes.”_

The frown wavered slightly, and the wildness in the pale eyes faltered. Finn put out his hands wordlessly, and Kevin took that as an invitation to grasp them and pull Finn to his feet--and at that moment his phone battery died and plunged them back into darkness.

Kevin heard Finn make a low, startled sound from directly in front of him. The hands in his shook slightly and Kevin grasped them more tightly, suddenly afraid Finn would pull away from his touch. “Yeah, giraffes,” he said, keeping his voice just as normal and steady as possible. “And a Pallas’s cat--do you know them?”

There was no sound, but Kevin got the impression of a slight shake of the head, heard the tendrils of the Demon’s gear slithering.

“Oh, they’re amazing,” Kevin said cheerfully, just as if he weren’t holding hands in the darkness with a demon. _Fuck it,_ he said to himself. _My demons are more badass than his, even when I’m talking about cats._ “They’re like permanent Grumpy Cats, you’ll love them. And then there’s the tamarins and the marmosets, fennec foxes--the ones with the ears--and mongooses. Mongeese?”

A tiny huff of laughter which Kevin took as encouraging. 

“What the fuck ever,” he barged along. He tugged on Finn’s hands, drawing him closer to the door step by step. “There’s alpacas and dingos and sea lions, and we’ll just wander around and watch them.” _There in the sunlight, surrounded by people, just two normal dudes with no demons at all._ “And then maybe on our day off we can go to Legoland, would you like that? Legoland, Finn?” He’d never particularly wanted to go to Legoland, since it didn’t have any animals, but at this point he’d say about anything. And maybe it would be fun, who knew. Anything was possible. “Tell me you’d like to go to Legoland, Finn.”

They were almost to the door now. Kevin felt Finn’s hands tighten in his. “Yes,” Finn’s voice said, and it _was_ Finn’s voice again at last. “I think I’d like that.”

Kevin felt him leaning closer and went still just before Finn’s mouth brushed his, there in the dark. His mouth was slick with greasy paint, tasting of sweat and paint together. Kevin licked his lips almost without thinking as Finn pulled away, finding himself wanting more.

“I’d like that a lot,” Finn said, and Kevin reached for the door handle, knowing that when the light streamed in it would reveal just Finn, good old dorky human Finn, there in his ridiculous gear with his ludicrous abs, smiling at him.

Kevin was already smiling back.


End file.
